Sensex

Indian markets drifted lower in the afternoon session. The markets opened positive on Tuesday with support from energy and FMCG stocks. The market breadth was positive in the afternoon with 1250 advances and nearly 1200 declines.

BSE Sensex was up by just 50 points at 2.30 pm and NSE Nifty was in the green at 6706. Among major gainers in today's trade were ITC, Reliance, ONGC, Tata Steel and ICICI Bank. Among losers were Tata Power, Power Grid, Ambuja Cements and Hindalco.

On Friday, BSE Sensex closed the week after making a big loss of 385.61 points at 17,349.07, whereas the broad-based NSE Nifty ended at 5,110.75, down 81.05 points.

The 30-share benchmark index, Sensex, opened with a negative gap of 219.06 points at 17,515.62 due to weak global cues. Afterward, the stock index traded deep into the negative zone owing to heavy selling pressure in frontline stocks. Lastly, the Sensex after touching an intraday low of 17,294.73 closed on a dull note.

After opening with a positive gap of 282.26 points at 17,504.00 on Friday (Jan 25, 2008), the 30-share index, Sensex dealt strongly for the whole day due to strong buying interest seen in the forefront stocks and global cues.

Therefore, the stock index gathered over 1,000 points in the noon trades, and it also touched an intraday high of 18,406.25.

For the week ended Jan. 12, 2008, inflation climbed up to 3.83% as against 3.79% during the previous week.

Wednesday was the cheerful day for Indian stock markets after witnessing heavy loss in past few days.

On the back of 75 basis points rate cut by the US Federal Reserve, the BSE Sensex opened positively after gaining 685 points at 17,415.26 on Wednesday

The stock index continued to deal strongly in the subsequent trading hours and by later half it made over 1,000 points due to continued buying interest across board, after the stock prices valuation touched striking level.